Socket wrenches with sets of interchangeable sockets are widely employed for mechanical tasks involving assembly and disassembly because of the convenience of using a single handle or, for work requiring different mechanical advantages, as few as three handles of different size, and suitable sets of sockets for actuating nuts and bolts of various sizes and shapes.
Wrench sockets are usually obtainable in sets of different size ranges but can be utilized efficiently by a worker only if from the available sockets, he can readily select and engage with a wrench handle the socket required for a particular task. Whether in a case also containing a handle and adapters or in a separate holder, the sockets of a set are customarily arranged in a selected order or sequence, usually based on size, and, when in a holder, are usually vertically disposed with their work-engaging ends up or exposed. Such a holder, typified by that disclosed in Pierce U.S. Pat. No. 3,405,377, has the advantage of exposing for selection the size and shape of its work-engaging opening but the disadvantage of requiring a socket to be detached from the holder before it can be engaged by a wrench handle. As opposed to Pierce, DeLucchi U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,738 discloses a socket holder in which the sockets are mounted on resilient studs of nut configuration with their drive or handle-engaging ends up or exposed for single-handed release by and engagement with a wrench handle. In the embodiment of FIGS. 4 and 5, each of DeLucchi's resilient studs is sandwiched or contained between a support plate and compression cap and has a lock bolt extending through a bore for enabling the stud on being turned in one direction to be compressed and radially expanded to secure the socket to the holder.
The concern of the present invention is an improved wrench socket assembly in which, as in DeLucchi, the sockets are held with their drive ends exposed for engagement by a wrench handle.